Land 400 gives future defence project hope

The Queensland government says German manufacturer Rheinmetall's new facility west of Brisbane will pay off beyond the initial benefit of its $5 billion Australian defence contract.

The company on Thursday officially announced its Australia-New Zealand headquarters and Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence will be built at Redbank Industrial Estate, near Ipswich.

It comes after the company was this week announced as the winning tender for the Land 400 Phase 2 contract to build military vehicles for the Australian Defence Force, beating out a winning bid from British company BAE Systems which would have been based in Victoria.

Around $1.8 billion out of the total contract will be spent in Queensland, which Queensland State Development Minister Cameron Dick said would flow on in multiple ways.

"What it does is provide the sustainability and capacity for small businesses," Mr Dick told reporters on Thursday.

"They might build one part of this, a small part, but what that does is give confidence for their business into the future."

It's also hoped once the centre is up and running it will prove attractive for future defence contracts.

Rheinmetall has already announced it will vie for Phase 3 of the Land 400 initiative, which is potentially worth $15 billion.

It comes as a war of words erupts over who gets to take credit for the military project.

The Queensland Labor government worked closely with Rheinmetall to develop the bid, and the company acknowledged their efforts in putting the proposal together.

But a group of federal Queensland Liberal National MPs, calling themselves "Team Queensland" claim they were the ones who lobbied Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to greenlight the project.

Queensland LNP Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington on Thursday also claimed some responsibility for securing the contract.

"My LNP state team, we've always been very supportive of it and that is why we continued to lobby our prime minister and the defence minister to make sure Queensland won out," Ms Frecklington said.

Mr Dick accused Ms Frecklington of showing up at the last minute to take credit for work she hadn't done.

"We've been running this party for three years, and Deb Frecklington comes in at two minutes to midnight wanting to crack open the champagne bottle," he said.